Oh stop being so snooty!

Today’s bank discussion went well, albeit with a few silences and sniffs of disapproval. The early welcoming and over-exaggerated greeting was soon replaced by grudging assistance. Now why did this occur? Well I dared to mention I was teetering on bankruptcy and trying to lower my debtors, and to achieve this I would like my overdraft fees and interest back.

You see, when the floodgates of PPI claims opened a few years back it actually changed the way banks were treated. The banks were no longer the end gate of dreams and requests, now you could ask for money back for errors. Traditionally any error with your account was met with a fine and interest, even if it wasn’t your fault. PPI opened the way for other investigations, which includes the path I decided to take today.

And boy was it not met well. As soon as I asked for money back it was very unfriendly, let’s call it begrudging customer service.

To be fair, and as stated before, I am not greedy. I just want help, and what I want is for the money back to be used to pay off my long standing overdraft, and the overdraft removed. Then I am back to a normal back account, and effectively knock £1500 off my debt.

The bank assistant’s eyebrows raised, “you know for people in your situation (skint you mean!), we can close off your overdraft by way of a loan. It’s specifically designed for people who cannot get loans”. Yes, how helpful, but I didn’t ask for a loan, I asked for my money back. But hey, can I borrow £25,000 on that basis? No…oh ok then, shame..

Net result, I can find statements 3 years old. This gives me money owed of £1500.74, which is utterly bizarre as £1500 is the amount of my overdraft. Perhaps this is a sign my good people of it is meant to be? Reasoning letter and 3 years of bank statement summaries handed over, and acknowledgement received – you never know, they may ‘misplace it’. So we will wait and see.

If agreed, and the fact I am asking for the money to clear a debt and not go in my pocket should make it attractive to the bank, it will be a good day seeing no overdraft balance. £1500 interest and charges in 3 years is a lot of money isn’t it?